In regards to raising the Encounter cap to 50, it is in my opinion that it should be kept at 25. It can already take 12 hours to Moderate a Realm with 25 Encounters that have conditions attached thus increasing it to 50 would extend the Realm turnaround time to an unacceptable length in my view.

Farious

Last edited by Farious on Wed May 24, 2017 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

From the point of view of designing realms, I personally welcome the increase in the encounter cap. The limited there has been one of the most restrictive areas of realm design for me. In fact I abandoned a virtually complete realm design simply because I couldn't get the number of encounters in place that I wanted to. (This was compounded by the fact that I was having to make use of initial encounters to act as triggers for whether subsequent encounters would work or not).

For me encounters add flavour and depth to realm exploration, I'd ideally like to see no limit on the number that could be created, but 50 does feel like it would allow me to create something a bit more interesting than we've been able to previously.

As an aside - 12 hours for realm moderation time sounds like a crazy amount of workload, are there things that could be done to make that process smarter? i.e. Do you guys get the possibility to download all realm text, or do you have to play the realm in order to access each encounter?

Also, do you moderate 100% of each realm that is designed by each player? Or do you sample for realms that are created by experienced designers?

SpiteAndMalice wrote:Do you guys get the possibility to download all realm text, or do you have to play the realm in order to access each encounter?

There are no moderation tools and a Moderator uses the Realm Editor as a Designer does. Every Encounter is opened individually and the text cut'n'pasted to a Word document to check for spelling mistakes and offensive language. If an Encounter has any conditions, activations, or mercs then they are mapped on to a screenshot of the Realm using a paint package such as GIMP or PSP to check for errors.

I'd just like to point out that the improved cap could possibly decrease the time spent moderating as the mechanics of a realm can be made alot easier simply with the use of a simple encounter or 2.

All of the realms i've made have been simply harder to write, organize and forced me to think 'laterally' with organizing encounters.
For example:

At times i'd be forced to make 1 encounter account for multiple flags and checks, that make a sort of messy web of flags, descriptions, and checks, as opposed to just being able to have a filler encounter, with a sentence or 2 in place making the prominent flag switches and what have you.

With the new changes, i'd simply make the designers take extra discretion in designing their realms in a way that's legible to the moderators, and give the moderators the ability to reject realms based on a messy organization.

Adding discretionary pop ups or messages when players exceed an certain amount (like 25 encounters) to remind them of this could be key. Itd also keep messy designers like me on the ball (i'm guilty of being pretty messy..>.<)

Wow that sounds like a lot of work dudes, could there be anything implemented to help you with the process?

You can already auto resolve all the battles? or do you have to play them anyway just to see how they play? (merc check etc) ..If you have to play them it might be more time efficient if you were able to start the battle just to check the starting conditions and then auto resolve out at any time and move on to the next one.

Some kind of tool that allows the moderator to travel anywhere on the map instantly and the option to toggle the fog on or off to be able to see the entire map and every hidden encounter.

I think some new way of framing encounters and delivering information could make it easier to, the way messages are conveyed to the player (and moderator) is very drab, I'm not sure walls of text in that very small and basic font makes for a very immersive experience for the quester.

A new kind of template for encounters is needed. I think it's hard to convey a meaningful story in between each battle using the current encounter system...

Most encounters just read as a piece of descriptive writing rather than actual directives for the player, leaving the player lost... Seeing as a quest log with directives etc is unlikely to be implemented now, perhaps the moderator could just reformat/edit the encounters submitted by realm creators into a more 'gamified' format (ideally the realm creators could do this first).

I think this kind of template makes it easier for the realm creator, which in turn makes it easier for the moderator.. and then ultimately the player.